Pneumatic frame bender



C.'N. MCCALLUM.

PN'EuMAnc FRAME BENDER. APPLICATION FILED APH. I3. ISZ.

INVENTOR QQ/wd w. Aff @0mm l, f ATTORNEY narran erases cLIrronD N.MCCALLUM, or SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, AlssIGNoR To SKINNER .ann`

nnnYsHIrBUILDINGCo., or snATT'LE, WasnnveTon.A

PNEUMATIC FRAME BENDER.

nemesi.

i Specification of Letters Patent. Pgrtntd MQW. 2g, i922 Application meaApril 1s, 1920. serial No. 373,483.

T0 a-ZZ wzom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CLIFFORD N. MCCAL- LUM, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State oflVashington, have invented a certain nevi7 and usetul PneumaticFrameBender, ot Which the following is' a specification.

yMy invention relatesV to a.' pneumatic frame bender.lvlore'particularly the de-` vice embodying my invention is designed tobend the steel members Jforming the hull frame ot steel ships, beingoperated'in association with a perforated platform, called the slabs.

In constructing the frame of a steely ships hull, practicallyy all theVmembers require some bending necessitated both by the varyV ingv shapeor1 al ship hull cross sectionally considered and the 'usualfl'aring'andtumble homelines of the ship hull'. For example, the beams whichconstitute the side ribs and the various angle irons must all be curvedto adapt them to their special position in the hull. Each Vof these ribniemberswith its corresponding member on the oppositev sidev ofA thehull must be given abend having a:

degree of curvature differing from allthe others depending uponits'position, that 1s,

its distance from the bow.' Not only must vice that can be used `ingiving this Wide 'range of curvatures to thev various steelmembersdiiiering greatly `in size from one another which goV to Vmakeup theframe Work of a ship'hull. In short, nostandard mould will meet thesituation whichonthe contrary demands a' deviewvhich ischarac-Ay Aticularly the obyects oi: my invention-are'to terized by its universaladaptabi'lity.y 1

Forsuch bending, the steel members 'nnistf beplieated and 'hence thedevice'designedto bend these members Vmust be adapted to be:

a plied to them l in` a: Vheated condition. hibreo'ver such device mustbef capable vof exerting and sustaining a gr'eatforce owing to themagnitude ot some of thefra'me members an'd'thistorce must be `instantlycontrollable so that itsv yapplication can be stoppedprom'ptly when' therdesired degree ofcuivatu're is reached and the frame member beingtreated is properly secured in po-l sition While cooling. Further, this'torce leling and adjacent to the plane of the platform floor or slabs,i. e. on the plane ot support of the beam which is to be bent. This maybe called the Working plane oit' the device, The beam being in a highlyheated condition Would be greatly distorted it' such I force Was.applied otherwise' than on the line of support ot' the Weight ofthe-beam; Thus, 1s presented the difficulty. of providing a de' vice ofsuiiicientpower and 'at the same time not have a piston of largediameter, Which obviously Wouldintroduce an objectionably large stepvdown to reach the Working Plane. Y u

Moreover, such device must be light ot Weight and capable of beingquickly and easily moved about-othervvise'the member being shaped Willhave cooled .to a point Where it cannot be properly bent, and a revheating would be necessary which may be impossibler 'it the degree otcurvature is great, because the furnace might not be ot sufiic-ientwidth to receive such" member in a bent' condition.` Onwthe other handWhile the device' must be capable being quickly moved about yet itmustiprovide Afor auto-v matically anchoring itself vivhen Ypositionedso that it can eXertits torce and also it must provide for'automatically unanchoring itselt when it is to berepositioned.

Furthermore,,parts ot such device are sulject to great -Wearand must bereadily replaceable. Such is thc situation with respect to ythe parthereinV `designated as a ram. Finally, such a machinemust besimple inconstruction so that 'it can be'repaired by operators, who are notmachinists.

InV general,` the objects "ot my :invention are to provide a framelbending device which will satisfy all these conditions.- More parprovidea trame bending device; which will have a wide range ot adapta-bility sothat it will bend the'various iframe members ol steel ship hulls givingto each' member its particular degree ot curvature; which. willbe'capable of exerting a great 'force on` a low Workingplane, iqe. onthe plane ot the support of the beam tol be bent;l which will becapable' of being easily and'y quickly moved about and at the same timecapable of automatically anchoring itself When positioned and ofautomatically unanchoring itself when repositioned, and Which Will becharacterized by its portability, simplicity,

ability to maintain or sustain a great force, and the facility withwhich worn parts may be replaced. Y

The above mentioned general objects of my invention together with othersinherent in the same are attained by the mechanism illustrated in thefollowing drawings, the same being merely a preferred exemplary form ofembodiment of my invention, throughout which drawings like referencenumerals indicate like parts: Y

Figure 1 is a partial sectional view of a device embodying my inventionshowing one cylinder from above and one cylinder in long ,ritudinalvsection Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same on broken line2, 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view on broken line 3, 3 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 4 is a view showing the application of the same to the bending of aframe member.

In two cylinders 5 and 6 are disposed pistons 7 which are respectivelyprovided with rods 8 and 9. To the ends of these rods 8 and 9, acrosshead member 10 is secured. To the underside of this is bolted bybolts 11 the ram 12 which member extends nearly the length of themachine; On the forward end of the ram 12 is the toe 13 which dropsbelow the plane of the underside of the ram. The removable plate 14holds the ram 12 in its channel 15, said plate being held in position bybolts 16. On the rear end of the device and centering on thelongitudinal axis is the anchoring pin 17 extending for a short distancebelow the longitudinal plane of its holding casting 18.

Compressed air or fluid conduits 19 and 20 have a conventional four wayvalve 21 in common, and a flexible conduit 22 affords a means to connectthe device with the main air or fluid line, said conduit attaching onthe side of the four way valve 21. Conduit 19 leads to the rearcross-conduit 23 in the walls of the device. This cross-conduit 23 opensthrough ports 24 and 25 into the cylinders 5 andG in their rear endportion. Conduit 20 leads to the front cross conduit 26 in the walls ofthe device, said conduit 2G opening through ports 27 and 28 into thefront end portions of the cylinders 5 and G. The four way lvalve21 hasan outlet port 29 through which the air in the cylinders exhausts. Petcocks-30 and 31 are provided for each of the cylinders 5 and 6 for drainpurposes.

The valve 21 is providedwith a stem extension handle 32. A handle 33having yoke arms 34 serves in moving the device about. Wheels 35 aresecured to the end of the arms 34 which arms are pivotally secured at 3Gand 37 to the device a short distance above of the device.

general, the application and operation of my device is as follows: On aniron platform 38 provided with perforations 39, said platform beingcommonly referred to or known as the slabs, a curved line 40 is chalkedaccording to the pattern frame pre pared for the particular member to beshaped and pins 41 are made fast in such of. the perforations 39 as areintercepted by this line. The beam 42 to be bent is drawn out of ayfurnace adjoining said platform and one end is made fast by pins 43driven into the holes 39 in which they are caused to bind. Then thedevice `herein described is posi tioned and anchored by pin 17successively at points along said beam 42 and the ram 12 is caused tobear against the said beam and push it till' its edges bear against thepins 41 at that point, whereupon' the beam is made fast by the pins44,-all of'said pins being of similar construction and having a slightbend in their shank to cause them to bind in the holes' 39. *Y Then, themachine is moved to another point along the'beam and the operationrepeated. y

More particularly, the operation of my 'in vention is asfollows:Compressed air or fluid is supplied to t-he device by means of theflexible conduit 22, which may be conveniently yieldingly suspended overhead by a weight'balanced over a pulley whereby said flexible airconduit is kept out of the way of the operators on the slabs. The handle33 is elevated so as to lower the wheels 35 below the plane of the plate14 and so raise the rear end ofthe device suihcient-ly so that the.anchoring pin 17 clears the surface ofthe slabs. Let it be particularlynoted that the center of gravity of the device is forward of the pivotpoints 36 and 37 so that upon raising the handle 33, the anchoring pin17 is certain to -be automatically withdrawn from one of theperforations` 39 because only the rear end is ele vated when the handleis raised. However, only enough weight is forward tomake sure that thefront end will not raise and to permit the front end to bear lightlyupon the slabs, i. e. so that most all the weight is carried bythewheels, onlyk enough being thrown forward to-insure the lrear endalonerising when't-he handle is elevated.' The device is-thendragged to thepointof the beamV against which itis to bear .whereupon the;

handle is lowered in order to raise the wheels 35 and let the anchoringpin 17 automatically extend into one of the perforations 39. Then thevalve extension handle 32 is turned to permit the air pressure to extendthrough conduits 19 and 23and ports 24 and25 and strike upon the pistons7 of each cylinder 5 and 6 with equal force. Thesje pistons are thusforced forward and push outwardly the rods 8 and 9. This outward push iscombined by means ofthe .crosshead 10 and made to actuate the ram 12. Atfirst, the pressure is turned on partially to cause the ram to extendslowly until its toe 13 comes into actual contact with the beam 42,-thusis avoided a sudden blow which might darnage the device. The air infront of the pistons 7 exhausts through conduits 2O and 26, valve 21 andoutlet 29. Thereafter, the pressure is increased as required until thebeam is forced back to the line of pinsA (4:1) secured on the line ofthe chalk mark 40. W'hen the beam has been securely pinned down as aboveexplained by pins 44 the valve 21 is turned by means of the stemextension handle 32 so that the air pressure is caused to extend throughconduits 20 and 26 and ports 27 and 28 whereby the pistons 7 are forcedbaclnva-rdly,-tlie air in the rear of the pistons exhausting through theconduits 19, valve 21 and the outlet 29. The forcing back of the pistons1' retracts the ram 12.

The rain 12 has a long bearing on the walls of its channel l5 throughoutthe length of its stroke and in this wise objectionable side thrusts orpressure is removed from the piston rods S and 9. The ram 12 from thegreat pressures to which. it is subjected intime becomes distorted andmust be replaced. For this purpose, the plate 14 is provided and isreadily removed by taking out the bolts 16 andthe bolts 11 of thecrosshead member 10.

It is to be particularly noted that the working plane of the ram 12 ispractically the line 45 of support of the beam 42, i. e. in the planepara-Heling and adjacent to the plane of the platform or slabs 88. Theram 12 must be actuated with great torce. To develop the requisiteamount of power in one cylinder would require a. piston of greatdiameter and hence an impractically large step down in the toe 13 wouldbe necessary to enable the ram to operate on the said low working plane.To keep the axis of the pistons on a suicient-ly low plane and yetprovide the requisite power, two pistons ot small diameter are providedand the force of the two combined by means of the crosshead member (l0),to the underside of which the ram 12 is secured.

Obviously, changes may be made in the forms, dimensions, and arrangementof the parts of my invention, without departing from the principlethereof, the above setting forth only a preferred form of embodiment.

I claim-d 1. A pneumatic frame bender embodying two cylinders positionedside by side, pistons disposed in said cylinders, piston rods carried bysaid pistons, a crosshead joining said rods, a ram carried by saidcrosshead, said ram extending nearly the entire length of the device, aremovable plate disposed to hold said ram in place, an anchoring pin,compressed air conduits leading to the iront and rear end portions ofsaid cylinders, a iourway valve whereby compressed air may be caused toflow alternately to the front and rear ends ot' said cylinders toactuate said pistons.

2. A pneumatic frame bender embodying two cylinders of relatively smalldiameter positioned side by side, pistons disposed in said cylinders,piston rods carried by said pistons, a crosshead joining said rods, aram carried by said crosshead, said ram extending nearly the ent-irelength ot' the device and having a toe disposed on one end whereby andby means of said relatively small diametered cylinders a low workingplane is provided,a removable plate disposed to hold said ram in place,an anchoring pin, a handle with yoke arms, wheels operatively disposedon the end portion of said arms which arms are pivotally secured to thedevice at such a point as to throw the center of gravity forwardly ofsaid pivot point, compressed air conduits leading to the front and rearend portions of said cylinders, and a four way valve whereby compressedair may be caused to iiow alternately to the front and rear ends of saidcylinders to actuatc said pistons.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 2nd day of April,A. D. 1920.

CLIFFORD N. MCCALLUM.

